Keep motivated with a diet and workout binder

If you’re like me, you read diet and fitness magazines to keep motivated. One of the magazines I love is Health. It has great articles about dieting, women’s health, and the latest in fitness trends. It also features delicious, healthy recipes for dieters.

Since I also get weight loss inspiration from a bunch of other magazines like Woman’s Day, Body + Soul, and O, The Oprah Magazine, I tend to read them quickly, then I rip out articles to keep for future reference. (The only magazine I don’t do this with is the holiday issue of Weight Watchers Magazine since the whole magazine is worth keeping.) I also print out articles from the Celebrity Fit Club membership site.

After collecting a manilla folder’s worth of articles, I decided I had to organize them or they’d sit there unread and unused. So I created a Diet and Workout Binder. I took a three-ring binder I had bought during back to school sales season, and filled it with clear, top-loading sheet protectors. Then I created sections with tab dividers. One section was exercise, one was recipes, another was health articles. (Divide your notebook into topics that work for you.) Then I inserted all the articles I collected into the sheet protectors.

Sheet protectors rule

Sound like too much work? Why not just three-hole punch the articles instead? First, you’ll probably cut off some valuable content if you do that. Using the sheets is neater and they perform as advertised – they protect what you put in them. Imagine going through your recipe section while cooking and splattering some food on the page. All you have to do is wipe the sheet off. Ever try doing that with a piece of paper? Yuck! (And that’s why some of my cookbooks are such a mess.)

Bring your notebook to the gym

Interested in trying out a new exercise from a magazine? Have you ever tried to do an arm exercise while holding a magazine – impossible! Well, if you have the exercise article in a sheet protector in your Diet and Workout Binder, you can easily put it on a bench or the floor and consult it when needed. Plus, the the sheet protectors keep sweaty fingers from ruining the paper. And imagine how organized and together you’ll look!

Include your food journal

If you keep a food journal, you may want to combine it with your Diet and Workout Binder. Maybe you already keep your journal in a spiral notebook. If it’s pre-punched, just open the rings and place the notebook inside the binder. If that’s too cumbersome, you could add some notebook paper or use your Diet and Workout Binder to store your previous weeks’ entries instead.

Have fun with your Diet and Workout Binder

You may want to add before and after pictures or pictures of how you’d like to look. Include your Weight Watchers POINTS calculator or a listing of the POINTS of items at your favorite restaurant and fast food joints. Add a pencil pouch and include whatever will help motivate you! Ask your Weight Watchers leader to put your weekly star sticker in your notebook. Whatever works for you!

Have fun and decorate your Diet and Workout Binder! Add stickers, artwork, and motivational sayings. If you scrapbook, go nuts and make it a masterpiece. And don’t forget to put your contact info in your Diet and Workout Binder case you lose it – name, phone number and email address (or your business card) should suffice.